To the Gold Coast for Gold
A Personal Narrative

This 1883 publication recounts the journey taken by Burton and Cameron into West Africa to inspect local gold mines.

Richard Francis Burton (Author), Verney Lovett Cameron (Author)

9781108031431, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 June 2011

396 pages, 1 colour illus.
21.6 x 14 x 2.2 cm, 0.5 kg

First published in 1883, this travel memoir chronicles the journey into West Africa undertaken by explorers Richard Burton (1821–90) and Verney Lovett Cameron (1844–94) in 1881. The mission for the two men was to assess the mining potential of the west coast, first observed by Burton in a publication that had appeared twenty years earlier. Volume 2 starts with the men in Sierra Leone and describes the journey to Axim, 'the gold port of the past and the future' in Ghana. The subsequent chapters describe various expeditions made out of Axim and the examination of some mines. The journey was cut short by the Foreign Office, who feared for the safety of the two explorers. Burton returned to Europe with a large collection of plant and animal specimens, and the pair sent 151 plant species, lists of which are included in the appendices, to Kew Gardens.

12. The Sá Leonite at home and abroad
13. From Sá Leonite to Cape Palmas
14. From Cape Palmas to Axim
15. Axim, the gold port of the past and the future
16. Gold about Axim, especially at the Apatim or Bujiá concession
17. The return-visit to King Blay
Atábo and Béin
18. The Izrah mine - the Inyoko concession - the return to Axim
19. To Prince's River and back
20. From Axim to Ingotro and Akankon
21. To Tumento, the 'Great Central Depôt'
22. To Insimankáo and the Butabué Rapids
23. To Effuenta, Crockerville, and the Aji Bipa Hill
24. To the mines of Abosu, of the 'Gold Coast', and of the Tákwá ('African Gold Coast') Companies
25. Return to Axim and departure for Europe
Conclusion
Appendix
List of birds collected by Captain Burton and Commander Cameron
List of plants collected on the Gold Coast by Captain Burton and Commander Cameron, R. N.
Index.

Subject Areas: African history [HBJH]